Photo Credit- Loni Lewis
Two months ago to the day, on April 11th, 2018 seven of Savannah’s best bartenders met up at 11am to tour a local educational garden at Bethesda Country Day School. Why? It was the first leg of the Sipsmith Port City Punch Competition, where bartenders chose the seasonal ingredients that they wanted to include in their punch recipe for the competition later that night. Director of Farm and Garden, Merrin Slocombe, led this motley crew on a tour of the farm, and described their environmentally forward practices that they teach their students. After the tour, bartenders selected from a variety of plants produced at Bethesda Gardens including edible flowers, mint, radishes, greens, parsley, turnips, lettuce and much more. They departed and had mere hours to create a punch using only the previously mentioned ingredients and handcrafted Sipsmith London Dry Gin.
The creations were ingenious at the Port City Punch Competition held later that evening. The venue 220 Congress Street Up provided vintage punch bowls in their Prohibition Museum bar setting. Imagine walking into a beautiful, hidden speakeasy and being able to sample 7 different punch variations and vote for your favorite. Well that’s exactly how the competition was executed! At the end of the evening, there was a people’s choice award and also a 1st place prize. The 1st place punch was decided by 3 distinguished judges and the criteria included:
1. Best creative and original use of Sipsmith London Dry Gin and Herbs from Bethesda Gardens
2. Overall taste
3. Presentation/appearance
4. Knowledge of Products
5. Cocktail Name
After guest finished voting and the judges finished tallying, the 1st prize went to Billy Robin of the Andaz hotel bar, and the people’s choice went to Jason Graham of 220 Congress Street Up. The 1st prize recipe highlighted Sipsmith Gin and radishes from Bethesda Gardens.
